I am new to DFS, and would like to setup domain based namspaces across our 13 sites to make software deployment easier.We have a domain with 5 DC's (2 on 2012 r2, 3 on 2008 r2) and multiple other file servers at multiple sites. Domain functional level is 2008 r2.

Previous to the installation of the 2012 r2 servers about 3 months ago, I was attempting to install and configure DFS using domain based namespaces and had all sorts of problems with DFS not allowing me to create these namespaces. I suspected it may have been the 2003 DC's I still had, so worked on moving those services to 2012 r2. This has been completed, domain func level increased, and all roles have been moved to the new VMs.

This has fixed nothing. I am still getting an error message when attempting to create domain based namespaces: "\\DOMAIN.com.au\deploy: the namespace server \\SERVER\deploy cannot be added. The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted"

Plus when I log into the DFS management console on any of my DC's, and add namespace to display I get "The namespaces on "domain" cannot be enumerated. The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted".

I have had a bit of a play around with some troubleshooting, but nothing seemed to lead to any major problems. Has anyone had luck with troubleshooting this or a similar issue?

Make sure after all the moving around and adjustments you have made that your DNS is truly working correctly. It sounds like the configuration is failing when the host server can't be touched. I have had similar issues when DNS was installed on the machine before Active Directory was setup. On server 2012 things go better if DNS is not present and the AD role is added where it's install script configures DNS for you initially...